Where I live Autumn has arrived! I do enjoy the different seasons and living in the Welsh countryside means I really notice how the year changes. At the moment the farmers are, well, farming! The stock is being moved, the sheep are shorn, the fields are being worked and the hay is in. Hens are laying ( eggs are always for sale at the farm gates). Vegetables are still cropping and being sold at bargain prices. The hedgerows are full of blackberries and my freezer is full of gooseberries and plums waiting to become jam.

My home is a small stone cottage in the Clwydian Hills of North Wales. Last week our central heating boiler died, so this week it is being replaced. Not a problem you might think! Well……

The cottage is something in excess of 100 years old. It is built from stone and then White rendered. In fact it’s an up and down sort of a building full of odd steps, nooks and crannys, but we love it. Anyhow, I digress, the boiler has arrived all shiny and new. The plumbers have arrived and needed to drill a hole through the outside wall.

The wall is 22 inches thick and made of Granite!! They’ve just broken through to the outside so I suspect that the job might take a little longer than planned. You wouldn’t believe the level of dust within the house, or how far it spreads. I thought of the following poem with a rye smile because dust I must!

Today I took myself, the dog and my Fitbit for a walk along the country lanes where I live. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and the flowers blooming.

I would like to take better photographs but hey you can’t be good at everything!

the snowdrops are blooming in drifts whilst the daffodils are just bursting through their buds. I nodded to the Wizard of the woods who I pass almost daily and admired the beautiful countryside.

Moel Famau is the highest hill within the Clwydian Range, formerly Flintshire Range, on the boundary between Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales. The hill, which also gives its name to the Moel Famau country park, has been classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1985. It is also surrounded by several well-preserved Iron-Age hill forts.

A northern part of the Offa’s Dyke footpath, one of the UK’s most popular National Trails, crosses the summit of Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower.

I have no idea how the elephant came to be in the garden but he is a long time resident and brings a smile to faces.

Anyhow I do know the secret of happiness! The secret of happiness is knowing when you are happy and celebrating that fact at that time. There’s not much point in saying that you was happy last week or last year. You need to know that you are happy now. And I am!💃